I was reminded of an old joke today. A journalist heard Mahathir Mohammed (or Lee Kwan Yew or any Asian autocrat) talk about “Asian values” saying that people needed food before they could experience freedom. He set off to the Shan hills in East Burma where the junta could no longer venture to ask the Shan people their opinion about what was more important food or freedom? They respond, “what is food?”
So the journalist ventures over to Hanoi to ask some Vietnamese which, in their opinion was more important. The Vietnamese respond, “what is freedom?”
Perplexed and a little annoyed, the journalist heads over to Singapore, where he hopes he can get a straight answer. He approaches a Singaporean and asks them when in their opinion is more important, food or freedom? The Singaporean’s reply: “what’s an opinion?”
